How To Blur Anything On Canva 2025

Ever looked at a design and thought, “I have to blur this part to make it look better“? Or maybe you just want to hide something on a photo, or make the edges of a shape blurry.

Great news is that you don’t need fancy Photoshop skills to pull this off. We can make use of some basic Canva features to do that.

In this guide, I’ll walk you through most of what I know can help you blur the whole image, part of a photo and shapes.

How To Blur Photos On Canva

You can use Canva to blur the whole image, and part of an image. But you can’t blur a Canva vector file in the same way as blurring photos.

Method 1: Canva Blur Effect

The first step is to select the photo on your Canva design.

Then, a toolbar will appear above the photo.

Select the “Edit” button.

On the left side, a panel of features will slide out.

Go to the section that says “fx Effects” and select the “Blur” tool.

This will open up the blur settings.

You will see 2 options.

If you wish to only blur one area of your photo, select the “Brush” tab.

Toggle the brush size for bigger area of blur and intensity to blur the area more.

Your cursor will turn into a circle, drag it to your photo and click and drag over the area you want to blur. You will see a purple highlighted area like this:

Now, let go of your cursor and you have one part of your photo blurred.

If you wish to blur the while image, select the “Whole Image” tab.

Then, toggle the “Intensity” for less or more blur effect.

If you wish to remove the blur effect, click the “Remove Blur” button at the bottom of the panel.

Method 2: Auto Focus

This method is amazing, as you can use this to blur the background of your photo without touching the subject.

First, in the same left-side panel, under the “fx Effects” section, select Auto Focus. It’s on the right side of the “Blur” tool.

In the Auto Focus settings, adjust the “Blur intensity” and “Focus position” to help the tool blur the area you like. There’s no need for you to click and drag your cursor.

In my image here, you will see the purple area, that’s the area that I don’t wish to blur.

In other words, I’d like everywhere except for the cat’s head to blur.

This is how it looks like:

Make sure your image is of highest quality or resolution so that this Auto Focus tool can pick out your photo’s subject and background more accurately.

Method 3: Use Elements

Another way to blur your photo without doing anything to the photo itself is to add a blur element to it.

First, select the “Elements” button on the left menu.

When another panel slides out from the left, type out the word “blur” in the search bar on top.

Select “See all” and a range of graphics with blurry effects will appear.

Click on the one that works for you and apply it to your photo.

How To Blur Shapes and Text In Canva

There isn’t a direct way or a dedicated feature you can use on Canva to just blur out shapes and text. The only way for now is to export them as images and re-import them back to canva.

Once they are in Canva, you can then blur them in the same way as you blur any images or photos.

How To Convert Shape or Text To Image

In this example, I will show you how to save your shape as an image only and not for text, because they go through the same process. You just have to do the same for your text just like how it’s done for a shape.

First, click on Elements on the left side menu of the Canva Editor. You will see a menu panel slide out.

Select See All in the Lines & Shapes section in the panel. A selection of shapes will appear in the panel. Go ahead to click on any shape you would like to apply the blur effect.

In this example, I’ve selected the heart shape by clicking on it once.

You can also type in any shape keyword into the search bar and hit the Return key on Mac or Enter on Windows.

Once you’ve selected a shape, it will appear on your document page on the right.

Next, is to save your shape as an image file. First, do that by clicking on the Share button on the top right of the window. Then, click the Download button.

Select PNG under File Type. Then, click the Download button.

Canva takes a few seconds to process this and you will see a dialog box pop up for you to save your file.

Input the name of your shape image in the Save As field and select the folder you wish to save your image in. Then, click the Save button.

Do the same for your text.

Then, upload your shape or text image back to Canva.

This time, the format is the same as a photo (an image format). You will be able to apply the methods above to blur your shape or text.

Final Thoughts

The best way to blur in Canva should be the easiest way, depending on your objective. In general, I do find Method 3 useful.

I would use the Auto Blur tool to blur the whole image first. Then, use the Restore tool to remove some blurry effects from parts of my blurred image.